Rando.. Like Lando Griffin, but with an R

Family Guy could easily be my favorite show.

Anyway, so it takes time for these ideas of mine to mix around and formulate in this idiosyncratic brain of mine. I love that word, idiosyncrasy.. individuality, oddity, peculiarity, fetish, UNCONVENTIONALITY. Inspiration to my ears. This word needs to not only be used more, but expressed more. Back to topic -- So when the idea hits, chills run vigorously up and down my body. When it hits, it hits. And from there, I find myself creating albums. I get visions of not just a picture, an idea at its entirety, in a split second, 10 in 1, and that is how these albums are created. I like it though because it organizes all my work for me, quite nicely. Creating portfolios. Where will this take me? I am totally curious. I guess only god knows for now, but we make plans, and god just laughs at us, so maybe nobody really knows... 

SOO with no knew album for today, here are some pictures I've played around with, me just being silly and getting to know my camera inside and out. Remember I love distorted perspective, so I see things all the time that trigger these impulse pictures. I just feel an instant need to capture a moment, that when gone will never resurface. When I'm not taking pictures, I'm editing pictures, perfecting the best ones, I'm obsessed I can't stop if you asked me to, something is pulling at my constantly and for once in my life there is nothing in front of me to stop it... like in Donnie Darko (an American psychological thriller-fantasy film as its described) and Jake Gyllenhaal at his sexy young age, sees people's life direction through this vortex that protrudes out of everyone's chest, including his own. It's like gods given path, I feel like I'm following mine... 

Star Light Star Bright

Secret Window

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Red

Yellow

VROOM

I heart Moet

Ode to the Fall Leaf

Ode to the Fall Leaves. I'm gone for a weekend and the leaves have already changed colors. I actually love this time of year because the leaves in the Fall on Long Island are magnificent. The neighborhoods are just doused with trees, tree coverings every other street, you feel as though hidden deep on the first layer of a great rich forest. Don't you love your imagination. I love mine. I really do. Me being infatuated with colors the way that I am, I notice the most beautiful fully changed fallen leaf laying so breathlessly in between my two feet, as I stood out of my car. I picked it up and it was as if it was filled with some magical light and it gave birth to all these ideas all at once through my finger tips on a nonstop route to my brain. I knew I had to get to work.

I have discovered that I like turning the camera on myself. It actually is something that most photographers refuse to do. So I figure, let's walk in the direction where all else fail to go. I got a tripod as a nice little gift from my dad, and when I say gift I mean it's the tripod from an old school video camera made cerca 1965, but it works and it works quite well when photographing myself. It's an interesting feeling, turning the camera on yourself, blindly shooting. People walking by and watching, their expressions blatantly read, what in the sam hill??! Haha more like what the fuck??! I love the feeling, it feels so good so right, I get so lost in my own little sam hill world. In that world, that's where the magic really happens.

SO with the crisp Fall presence on my mind, a single beautiful perfectly changed Fall leaf, my hand dandy tripod, and ME on my mind, this is what happens...

My Very First SAM HILL

Nooch,
 
To my very first SAM HILL hanging, I am speechless. It was you who reached out to me, before this blog was even created even a thought, and it was because of you and your interest in my work that initially led me to starting this blog. Hey, if one person wants to buy my photos, why won't more? So I knew from the second you got in touch with me, with your interest in creating a piece of art using my photos, I had to put myself on the internet. And because of you, look how well my blog has prospered! Every adventure has a beginning, and you my friend, were at my side at my very beginning. And to you, I thank you from the deepest part of my heart. You will forever be my very first SAM HILL!


Peace Love & Endless Amounts of Happiness, 

From Me to You, 

Sam Hill

 

Lost in a Sea of Love

It's a Saturday morning, and what the fuck am I doing awake? INSOMNIA. Fuck me. Oh well, lets chat...

As I lay here on the most comfortable rug (props to Mel and Co) because I love to lay on the floor, my ipod plays-

Slip inside the eye of your mind, don't you know you might find, a better place to play- OASIS

So I'll start a revolution from my bed, or floor, cause you said the brains I had went to my head, and I realize, YOU have slipped inside the eye of my mind. 

Here are some lyrics that just gets me every time-


Then I saw this girl, with the most, 
beautiful hair, 
she had it,
wrapped around her, 
for clothes she did not wear- DISPATCH


I let my music take me where my heart wants to go- CAT STEVENS


Don't question why she needs to be so free, 
she'll tell you its the only way to be- ROLLING STONES

Long you live and high you fly, And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry,
And all you touch and all you see, IS ALL YOUR LIFE WILL EVER BE.- PINK FLOYD


I love music.

Was that English?

I'm still drunk.


:)

TGIF

TGIF to all you hard workers out there!!!

So my critique was PHENOMENAL. Talking about deep aspirations, emotions that have never been uncovered, putting myself out there like an open book for all the read, was so satisfying. I felt so alive, I felt I was exactly where I should be. Conversing with true artists, so much talent in one little room, so much inside to come out and be discovered, and these photographers have been doing this for years, some 30 years, and they still have yet to find hidden talent from within. I raise my hand as the newest comer and explain I've only been shooting for a month, maybe six weeks, with my sheer lack of experience, they were still completely impressed with what I have accomplished in such a short period of time. Astonishment. So impressed, they want ME to create a blog for our little photography society, which when up and running will be open to the public and I will of course share the link so you all can see what other fabulous photographers I am working with. As the critique continued, I sat there with my eyes wide open at the pictures being shown, I could not believe some of what I saw. Sitting next to these people who have years and years of experience under their belts, and I was the one being shown as the example! My photos, my blog, my creations, my inspirations, my mind... pretty fucking sweet if you ask me!


Soo, the whole point of a critique, besides the obvious critiquing, is to help find my distinct path down photography lane. And I can actually say that I am starting to see my yellow brick road forming in front of me. Just as a musician has a very specific path, I'm finding out that photographers are the exact same way. No musician is good at every genre of music and every instrument. Lets take Jimi Hendrix for example because I love everything about him and his music. He is considered to be the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. So in the world of music, Jimi Hendrix, although sick at vocals, bass, drums, keyboard, and percussion, he went down in history for his psychedelic rock music and his electric guitar. What I'm trying to figure out is what's my psychedelic electric guitar? What's my specific path that will make me stand out from everyone else? The two photos that were stopped and stared at, and that are leading me in my direction are these... 

SHOUT OUT TO MONTOYA- WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR CRAZY SEXY SELF! THANKS, NERD!

I am absolutely obsessed with these photos, they just marry so well. You can see it, I don't have to explain anything at all. It's funny because in taking all the photos I have thus far, which is about 2000, maybe more, I knew in my mind that these two were my best, they go together, I had a vision, its the Male/Female version of the same picture. AMAZING. But to hear that come from other people, other photographers who know what they're actually talking about, told me this is the beginning of my yellow brick road. I felt it. Now my mission, create a third picture. How do you do this? There is no answer. It's a feeling, an emotion, a thought, an idea, it just has to happen. I guess only time will tell where my yellow brick road will lead.......

CRITIQUE

So I have officially been invited to my very first critique. And it just so happens to be today! The idea of getting up in front of fifteen other photographers, some old some new, some red some blue, some masters, some not, and some who smoke pot, and sharing ten of my most prize photographs, expressing the deep meaning and inspiration behind each one... ready or not here I come! I'm so ready for this.

The hardest part is going to be receiving the critique, but I honestly think I can handle it. I don't even want to think otherwise. Just knowing that well established photographers are going to look at my work and probably tear it to shreds (or not) is absolutely thrilling. You only learn from the best of the best, it can only lead me in the right direction, more connections, more opportunity. If everything fails it will still be a success. So onward we go! Here are my VERY FIRST top ten...

Lose your dreams And you will lose your mind

Oh the glorious bubble bath. So many thoughts are formed when floating so lifelessly in the warmest most soothing water temperature with the sweet smells of cocoa butter and oils. The Sound of Silence, as your ears creep under the water. About to let go of all feelings, emotions, bad thoughts, and BAM! just like that, idea hits.. Now how the hell am I supposed to write my idea down, when I can't possibly move an inch? Aint life a bitch sometimes. 

The song that so nicely interrupted my peace of mind, but influenced this idea is one of my all time favorites. I will listen to this song in almost any time of need, because it's that amazing. Is a song recorded by the lovely Rolling Stones in 1966, probably most recognized by the American casual dining restaurant chain, Ruby Tuesday. There's a few reasons I have so much love for this song. One, the song is about a groupie of the band (for all of you who don't know, which is just about everybody, I am being Penny Lane from Almost Famous for halloween, Kate Hudsons character, shot it, its too perfect). I would love to live the life of a groupie during the 60s, but a groupie who had good ins with an awesome band, like the Stones, ahh what a surreal life. Two, this song is played in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums when Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) meets his sister Margot Helen Tenenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) in the tent up in his childhood room, listening to some records, they confess their love for each other, KISS, fully makeout, lay for a moment, and then Ruby Tuesday starts playing. I am a HUGE fan of Wes Anderson, so expect to see his movies pop up throughout my blog. The man is a genius, he creates weird over the top movies, but every one is inimitable. It's that wacky outlandish mindset (another mind I absolutely admire- Tim Burton) that gets my mind going, thinking, absorbing, creating...

Ruby Tuesday has a few amazing quotes within, but the lyrics that made this peculiar but awesome idea pop into my head, while so deeply immersed in my bubble bath, was

There's no time to lose, I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams
And you will lose your mind.
Aint life unkind?


And with all the above, you get this...... a thought of m i n e, put to creation

Where The Wild Things Are

"Photograph your experience of what you see, rather than what you see." 

I definitely spend a good amount of time thinking about how sweet the life of a child is. Unfortunately, it is not until many years after it has passed do you truly realize how great it is. But if you can't relive it, you may as well dream about it. When I close my eyes and imagine the perfect childhood moment, I picture myself running wild and free, lost in time, lost in space, somewhere in a never ending forest, with trees the size of skyscrapers, each one perfectly made for climbing, where the only breathing thing around me are creatures. I could get lost in that space for hours and hours, still to this day. 

As I sit here and write this post, I realize I am all bundled up in the best corner of the couch, cuddled under a big comfy blanket typing so close to my computer because I'm freezing, and all I can think is how much I feel like Bastian from the 1984 movie The NeverEnding Story (childhood classic I highly recommend if you have not seen) when he is up in his attic under his blanket about to dive into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book. That feeling, at that exact moment, when fantasy and reality collide, that is the exact feeling I get when opening up my blog, when I have ideas pouring out of my ears, that if I don't write these ideas down they'll disappear forever. And at that exact moment, I know I have just created something unique, something unlike anything else in the world. 

I guess I really do love childhood. I seem to somehow always incorporate it back into my life. The meaning of innocence, not caring what is going to happen ten minutes from right now, having complete freedom without even knowing, simply getting to enjoy every second of every day by doing whatever silly thought enters into your mind. 

It is so important to LIve to be Silly. And of course, to know when not to be.

These pictures below were inspired from a simple car ride. I never seemed to notice before how beautiful and extravagant trees really are, in their biggest and most vibrant forms. When I started snapping these photos, I automatically thought of the recently re-made movie of one of my favorite childhood books, Where The Wild Things Are, bringing me to the Title of this album...